WILD THYME AND VIOLETS While Sir Robin and Mary Gray sat on that English hillside, Nelly and her father walked on a hilly road above Lugano.

The April afternoon was Paradise.

Below, the lake lay blue as a sapphire mirroring a sapphire sky.

The space between them and the lake's edge was tinged with a bloom of bluish-rose, for all the almond groves were out in blossom.

Below them were drifts of sweet-scented narcissi.